War and management. Case 4
A big and very authoritarian leader, demanding unquestioning obedience, must emotionally feel for his subordinates.
Otherwise, the leader's career is at risk.
On July 16, 1940, just three weeks after the capitulation of France, Hitler issued Directive No. 16:
"Since England, despite its desperate situation, still shows no desire to come to an acceptable agreement, I have decided to prepare an operation to land a landing force in Great Britain and, if necessary, carry it out.
I order the following:
The landing must be made unexpectedly, the landing organized on a wide front, from Ramsgate to the area west of the Isle of Wight. Possible options for the operation (with the capture of the Isle of Wight or the landing in Cornwall) must be considered from all points of view by the commands of the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, and Wehrmacht and reported to me personally. I will develop a consolidated decision. Preparations for the start of this operation must be completed by mid-August."
So, in essence, the guy seriously proposes to prepare the most massive amphibious operation in the history of mankind in a month (!).
I won't describe all the details, I'll just say one thing: there was absolutely no possibility for Germany to land on the island. None at all. Not at all. You can't go against simple arithmetic laws just because Hitler himself writes an order saying "I want a snowman in the middle of July“.
In short:
Well, there were also some minor details: the capacity of the cargo ports on the south coast of England (which also needed to be captured) was insufficient to supply even a few divisions, while they wanted to land from 40 to 50.
After reading such an order, the CEO-1 level?- Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, and the Abwehr - were in a state of disbelief, after which they split into several groups: quick doers, tricksters, and yes-men.
And why is that, by the way? Because no one dared to say to the leader, "what the hell, let's discuss it."
Let's start with the doers - Luftwaffe. G?ring personally promised the Führer that his aces would knock England out of the air. As was customary for G?ring throughout his military career, he said it - he failed it.
As of July 1, 1940, the Royal Air Force had 905 fighters, compared to 1,464 fighters for the Germans. By August 7, the Germans had only 1,137 fighters (including replacements for those lost), while the British had 714.
The "climax" came on September 15, when during another raid, the Brits downed 58 planes with swastikas in exchange for 26 of their own.
There is another nuance here: if an English pilot shot down over his homeland survived, then after a couple of pints in a pub, he would return to duty, whereas a German ace shot down was lost to the Luftwaffe forever, regardless of whether he survived or not. Moreover, survivors fell into the hands of island counterintelligence, where, as we know, people with advanced communication skills work, capable of chatting up anyone in a friendly and relaxed conversation.
Let's move on to the Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine.
The army was eager to make a wide front landing to avoid being trapped on the shore and, using their blitzkrieg skills, launch rapid operations with wide coverage to quickly reach London and beyond. To make their "plan" look solid, they even made a presentation with awesome pictures.
领英推荐
By the way, life hack: if you want to distract your boss from details, draw more pictures with arrows in your presentation. He will start examining them, clarifying details, and redrawing arrows, and then the time for the meeting will come, he will say "we need to discuss this lately”, and then you see the project deadline has passed.
The Kriegsmarine in black tight suits reasonably understood that ensuring the safety of a wide front landing would be death for them.
The expensive battleships "Tirpitz" and "Bismarck" were still being completed, and the English Home Fleet (that which floats directly next to the island) has the battleships: "Nelson" (flagship), "Rodney", "Revenge". The battle cruiser "Hood", the aircraft carriers "Furies" and "Illustrious"; cruisers "Calcutta", "Sussex", "Shropshire", "Emerald", "Cardiff", "Berwick", "Cornwall", "Arethusa", "Norfolk", and "Australia"; and also 5 destroyer divisions (35 ships), 3 minesweeper divisions. That what British could put this to sea immediately as soon as the Germans decided to land.
Overall, in all oceans around the world they had 14 battleships and battle cruisers, 5 aircraft carriers, 18 heavy cruisers, 48 light cruisers, 7 mine cruisers, 51 destroyers, 39 escort destroyers, etc. In those days, Her Majesty's Fleet was a terrible thing, no joke.
Therefore, the Kriegsmarine embarked on what is now known as "workshops" and "status meetings" with the Wehrmacht. Each drew presentations according to their artistic peculiarities, each convinced the CEO that he was right and these idiots did not understand war, and each workshop ended with "a separate meeting is needed".
And why is that, by the way? Because no one dared to immediately tell the leader "what the hell."
While the tricksters and Luftwaffe sluggishly slowed down the process and unsuccessfully tried to do something with the RAF, Abwehr watched from the sidelines, and then Admiral Canaris made a truly Solomon decision (although Solomon was Jewish): while my stupid colleagues are wasting and time, I will be the smartest.
Abwehr decided to send spies to England, of course, to report to the CEO something like "I'm also doing something for the project." But Canaris was not such a fool as to send real spies there - that's a waste of resources. A pilot caught by the British - oh well. But a real spy caught - that's a real disaster.
Therefore, it was decided to send fake spies, but in such a way that it looked like it was real. After all, you have to save costs.
They actually recruited about 20 people in hostels and detention centers in Berlin, taught them a few phrases in English in a couple of weeks, and sent them to the island, just like in the cartoon or something. Each had a radio, a map of England, a pistol, and invisible ink with them. Well, except that they didn't put them in SS uniforms or give them a German flag.
The first spy was taken right in a coastal village. The guy collapsed in a pub at 10 am and asked for a drink. The guy didn't know that by the King's decree, selling alcohol was prohibited until 3 pm during wartime.
Two spies were stopped by a police patrol in Scotland. They were riding bicycles on the wrong side of the road. The constables were puzzled by the spies' incredible English with a heavy German accent, and a subsequent search found German sausages and NIVEA hand cream in their pockets.
In general, all the agents were caught quickly within a few days. Imagine yourself being a farmer in old England during a war with Germany, and an incomprehensible person with a broken language and a pronounced German accent starts asking you, "Hey man, where are your military bases, radars, artillery batteries, and airfields?"
We all know how Operation Sea Lion ended in history.?
Moral.
An authoritarian leader is not necessarily bad if there are results. But if a leader does not acknowledge critical feedback or has not created conditions for subordinates to provide it, he is in front of disaster. Because subordinates will still bring feedback to the leader, but in the form, that I described above - blatant sabotage and presentations.